


Yrs For Ever

by Poetry



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Classical References, Epistolary, Footnotes, Innuendo, M/M, Song Lyrics, Who Lives Who Dies Who Tells Your Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-07 06:57:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5447360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poetry/pseuds/Poetry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Going through Alexander's papers after his death, Eliza and her son find a letter of an intimate nature.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yrs For Ever

**Author's Note:**

  * For [puella_nerdii](https://archiveofourown.org/users/puella_nerdii/gifts).



> You wanted references to the musical styles of the production, I wanted to see if I could write a Hamilton-style hip-hop lyric – who could imagine the gods would put us all in one spot?
> 
> The title of the fic refers to the closing of Hamilton's last letter to Laurens before he died. (Also, bonus points if you can catch the references to two other musicals.)

My dear Col. Laurens, nights are cold without you in my bed.  
These past three nights I’ve had to share my bed with Lafayette.  
While Lafayette snores and dreams of horses and warships  
I lie awake and think if you were here how I would worship  
Every freckle on your face – and places farther south –  
Somewhere around your Charleston is where I’d put my mouth.  
Remember that drill manual we wrote, and all the shit we smuggled?[1](%E2%80%9C#note1%E2%80%9D)  
“Put your hand on the butt of your gun, and then you load the muzzle.”  
Well I’ll make ready: stock, lock, and get my cock up,  
And be ready to fire when you’re out of British lock-up.[2](%E2%80%9C#note2%E2%80%9D)

Soon I’ll meet the British and exchange some prisoners  
And get you back to New York – I’m sure you’re missing her.  
While South Carolina votes down your noble plan  
Come back to New York and you’ll find a hopeful man.  
In Washington’s camp he’s waiting for you, hat in hand,  
Ready to show you loyalty and love in any way he can.  
These days I feel like I hate everyone except for you.[3](%E2%80%9C#note3%E2%80%9D)  
I don’t think you know how much I feel in debt to you.  
When the war is over, we’ll work toward a new creation:  
We’ll build a true democracy, a slave-free nation.

When we holed up in Valley Forge in the cold,  
We would hold each other, and one night we told  
Each other about our favorite antiquities,  
And you said you always admired Thucydides.[4](%E2%80%9C#note4%E2%80%9D)  
I said to you that I liked Aristophanes  
'Cause I got off on these sodomite comedies,[5](%E2%80%9C#note5%E2%80%9D)  
Thighs against mine in the dark, what a rush,  
Fingers lingering, our hips were flush,  
And that's when I knew that our love was Athenian,[6](%E2%80%9C#note6%E2%80%9D)  
Deeper than any I'd ever found meaning in.

With you by my side, Laurens, we can go anywhere.  
We’ll make real the vision that the two of us share.  
With the guidance of your prudence and the power of my pen  
We can make this country great, like Athens come again.  
But like Achilles[7](%E2%80%9C#note7%E2%80%9D), I need to have my chance at glory.  
One day we’ll fight side by side on front lines of the war, we  
Have to prove we are what we promised to be.  
When we meet again there’s a place in my bed for you,  
But until then, my dear Laurens, I bid you Adieu.

John Hamilton finishes reading the letter. He puts it back on the pile of his father’s correspondence from the war, with a look on his face like he just got struck between the eyes. “Mama, what are we supposed to do? I never knew…”

Eliza bites her lip. “I never knew either, but he is what he is. Your father was always his own special creation.”

John gets up, paces, and throws up his hands. “But this is his biography! We’re compiling his papers, and this ain’t exactly a thing you tell the neighbors.”

“Facts are facts. Just relax, lay low.” Eliza takes up the letter and consigns it to the fire. John feels a pang watching his father’s words destroyed, though they were hardly in short supply. “His secrets die with him. No one needs to know.”

**Author's Note:**

> 1 Hamilton and Laurens helped translate a drill manual for the troops from French to English. These two rascals [riddled the manual with homoerotic innuendos](http://publius-esquire.tumblr.com/post/72936816921/there-was-no-time-to-have-a-drill-manual-composed). [ [return to text](%E2%80%9C#return1%E2%80%9D) ]
> 
> 2 Laurens spent part of the war as a prisoner of the British. Hamilton negotiated the exchange that set him free. [ [return to text](%E2%80%9C#return2%E2%80%9D) ]
> 
> 3 Hamilton said this nearly verbatim in [one of his letters to Laurens](http://founders.archives.gov/?q=Correspondent%3A%22Hamilton%2C%20Alexander%22%20Correspondent%3A%22Laurens%2C%20John%22&s=1111311111&r=18). “I hate Congress—I hate the army—I hate the world—I hate myself. The whole is a mass of fools and knaves; I could almost except you and Meade.” – September 12, 1780 [ [return to text](%E2%80%9C#return3%E2%80%9D) ]
> 
> 4 Thucydides was a Greek scholar who wrote about war and democracy. I bet Laurens would be into him. [ [return to text](%E2%80%9C#return4%E2%80%9D) ]
> 
> 5 Aristophanes wrote raunchy comedies with lots of homoerotic jokes. Seriously, that man was a master of the dick joke. [ [return to text](%E2%80%9C#return4%E2%80%9D) ]
> 
> 6 Historically, erotic love between men has often been referred to as "the love of the Greeks." [ [return to text](%E2%80%9C#return4%E2%80%9D) ]
> 
> 7 Yes, Hamilton is referencing Achilles on purpose because of his famous relationship with another soldier, Patroclus. Of course, Patroclus died in the war and Achilles mourned him spectacularly.[ [return to text](%E2%80%9C#return4%E2%80%9D) ]


End file.
